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Really — 18 front / 27 rear?
Guess I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow morning.1981 Lafer TI
1600 cc Type 1 engineI finally got the new gas tank installed today and was able to drive the car for the first time since adjusting the tire pressures. Yes, it is a much better ride. Thanks again for setting me straight.
SamOK, I was all set to bleed some air from my tires when a thought occurred to me: Most of you guys run 165-15s, but my Lafer came with 175R-14s. The owner’s manual doesn’t address tire pressure, but I’m wondering if it would be different for the smaller diameter wheels & tires on my car. ❓
1981 Lafer TI
1600 cc Type 1 engineTire shops jam 35 lbs into every tire because knuckle monkeys work there. They don’t know, they don’t care. As a result, most of us are running overinflated tires–especially on the TDs. Our cars weigh so little compared to every modern car that it’s actually dangerous–as well as uncomfortable– to drive around with “tire shop standard” pressure.
Tires work when they are inflated to the pressure necessary to carry the load that’s on them. To oversimplify to the point of being a little wrong, the air is doing the work, the tire is just a vessel for it.Your 175-14s will be rated to carry a particular maximum load at a particular maximum inflation. I think it will be on the sidewalls. Take a look. Then get out the calculator.Divide the actual weight each tire is carrying into the max load. Then multiply the max inflation figure by that number to get the correct inflation in PSI for your application. (This can get into a load index rating, a number between 75 and 125 that corresponds to lbs–see pdf here)Example: Say the tire is rated to carry 1500 lbs when inflated to 45 PSI.Further assume you’ve weighed your Lafer and know its 1850 lbs total with 1040 over the rear tires, leaving 810 over the fronts. You figure you and your passenger together are 400 lbs, with 3/4 of that over the rear wheels.So. 910 lbs over the fronts, or 455 lbs over each front tire. And,1340 over the back; 670 over each rear tire.Math: Max per tire is 1500. Fronts are 455/1500= .30. That means you want to have about three-tenths the amount of air in these tires as is called for in the max load chart. So: 45 x .3 = 13.5 lbs That’s your front pressure. You go a little more and the ride gets a little stiffer. You might like that because also, on the front, the load is less static–there is more pressure on the tires as you turn than when you’re cruising straight.Backs in this example: 670/1500=.45. Multiply 45 x .45 and you get 20 lbs.Again, these figures are just examples. The tire will tell you what its load rating and max inflation really is, and you need to weigh the car to get the perfect knowledge of what the tires are carrying. But this is how you determine tire inflation, and you can make your life oh so much smoother and more pleasant even just assuming your car weighs about what i just guessed.When you’re ready, I have a rap on monetary inflation calculation too.Ed, where did you get the tire inflation pressure thumb rule? It does make sense, but I have never seen this in print (until you put it there). I like it. All these comments about tire pressure really should be in their own dedicated post/thread.
Hi!
I am a new member! I have a Black MIGI on a 1970 VW chassis that I’ve been having a lot of fun with! I have enjoyed reading about others experiances and look forward to hearing from others!
Ed
Welcome, Eddy.
Roy: I got all that tire stuff a few years back on the Speedster site. One guy there–forget who–was a career tire shop guy. Owner, i think. Hope I remember what he said & conveyed it right.I shopped the same brainwave on the MG Experience forum and they all just hissed at me. 32 pounds in their cars, if not more. Hookay, guys….Ed: Thanks a truckload!
I’ll have to dig up our old calculator to run those numbers, since my brain doesn’t handle math as well as it did back when LBJ was in office. With luck, I can get it done and try out the adjusted pressures tomorrow before the Southeast Texas sun climbs too high for comfort.1981 Lafer TI
1600 cc Type 1 engineBump.
There are a lot of new TDr owners who seem interested in improving the ride of their new “ride”. Discussions about front leaf removal, shocks, coil overs, removing sand (weight) from the front, alignment etc abound.IMHO, the very first thing one should do is free and you won’t even get dirty doing it. See Ed’s excellent discussion and explanation (above) about running correct tire pressures. (It will almost always be much lower than you would guess.)After you put the correct amount of air in your tires, it’s likely that your to-do list will be substantially shorter. …and a big smile will be on your face.Thanks for the bump, Roy.
And again, let’s remind everyone that old tires are dangerous and will feel hard & squirrely at any inflation. Check the date code on them and replace–really!–if they’re more than 6 years old.Welcome
Having gone through six months of learning about my Fiberfab, mostly in this forum and Samba, you are in for an adventure. 🙂
:lol::?
:-):x:P
Please take the following in a constructive spirit:
After admiring the nice yellow paint in your introduction photo, I couldn’t help noticing that something is strange about the front bumper mounting. The bumper is way forward and doesn’t look like it is solidly attached. Ideas anyone?Enjoy! 🙂
Good eyes Kall!
Made me go out to the garage to look at my Duchess.
Dick, I suspect your car has incorrect bumper springs. The curve on your’s is much deeper than on mine, and on an original.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Welcome Dick
I too own a Classic Roadsters LTD And its the best car Ive ever owned! Im working on a few improvements but when Im done, shell be my daily driver once more.
All the advice has been a great help for my baby as well. Might I add my two cents to the mix… For your dash, rather than pledge to restore the shine I might recamend some lemon or orange oil to do the trick. Its what those in the antique business use to shine and preserve old wood. Plus he fragrence lasts longer. The more you oil it the deeper the conditioning and the longer it will last. It doesnt give a mirror shine, rather a softer glow more like a dash from years ago.
Have you named her yet?
Wow I can hardly believe it’s been so long since I’ve been on the forums. As we all know life has a way of pushing our toys to the bottom of the to-do list.
I’m pleased to report that after some TLC the Duchess quickly became my daily driver. In temps below 40, or if it’s raining I resort to my old van. I never tire of the attention the car gets where ever it goes.
The color is the original gel coat. I give it a coat of Lemon Pledge every couple of weeks. A trick I learned from a fellow I met at a classic car show many years ago. Easiest thing in the world and no rubbing!
I’ve done nearly nothing to the interior yet. The carpet is really old and faded. The pan is rusted very bad but is still strong. From the signs I’d guess it had a couple inches of water in it for at least a couple of years. I plan on applying some of that rust stopper stuff that turns the surface black and prevents further rusting before installing new carpet. The dash is toast as the car was left open to the elements for many years. I’m very lucky the body has survived so many years without a scratch. Other than the high gloss is gone, the gel coat is in fine shape and not faded anywhere that I can tell.
I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out the shaking at 50 to 70 mph. After about $1200.00 I finally figured it out. BTW I have about 12 VW wheels I bought on Craig’s List and none of them are good. A set of quality mag wheels and new quality tires fixed the problem.
The synchronizers in first and second are giving me a tad of trouble but I just can’t stop driving it long enough to replace them.
I fabricated and installed a trailer hitch so I can pull my 3/4 scale Fokker Eindecker E-III Fighter Replica to fly-ins and car shows. The Dutchess is built on a 69 VW chassis and I’m guessing it’s either a 1600 or 1700cc. The plane and trailer together weigh approx 700 pounds and I have to check my mirror to make sure it’s still back there. The little car doesn’t seem to know it’s towing anything!
I’m sure glad I checked back in with the forum! Kall and Paul thanks for noticing my extended front bumper! I didn’t have a clue. I actually had to straighten the spring on one side early on as the bumper was sticking further out on one side. It should not be an issue flattening them out enough to bring it back closer to the correct position.
Yes Secretagentcat I have named her “Sharon” after my wonderful wife who passed just a few years ago. I know I’m old and nutz but I believe the little car is rewarding me for that honor.
I hope every MG TD replica owner/builder is having as much fun with their car as I am. The only down side for me is my youngest is unable to drive it. He’s 6′ 4″ and 265 lb and his head forms a huge bump in the convertible top.I, in my prime, was only 6 ft tall, but I sit taller (30″ inseam). I always had trouble with my head hitting the top of roadsters, when it was erected.
I think Alan Ladd, who was about 5’5″ tall, said: “It’s not the height of the man that’s important, but how tall he sits in the saddle.” (That’s really short for male leads in Hollywood western movies.)
Of the roadsters that I’ve had, I had the most “top up” headroom in my TR6. Worst was a Lancia Zagato which had less than my Bugeye Sprite.
Royal2015-03-28 06:38:54
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